Communism and Faith in North Korea

On the 18th of June 2017, I was invit­ed to speak at the St. James’ Insti­tute in Syd­ney, along­side the Hon. Michael Kir­by, Chair of the UN Com­mis­sion of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK. The St. James’ Insti­tute is one of Aus­trali­a’s lead­ing cen­tres for the pub­lic explo­ration of Chris­tian­i­ty and culture.

Draw­ing on my PhD research and con­ver­sa­tions with NK exiles, my speech focussed on the long his­to­ry of Chris­tian­i­ty in north­ern Korea, from the ear­li­est arrival of the faith, to the present age of per­se­cu­tion in the DPRK. The Hon. Michael Kir­by dis­cussed his role with the Unit­ed Nations Com­mis­sion of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK, par­tic­u­lar­ly his find­ings on free­dom of religion. 

The mod­er­a­tor of the event was Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Michael Hors­burgh AM. 

Thank you to the organ­is­ers of the work­shop, espe­cial­ly the new Direc­tor of the St. James’ Insti­tute, Christo­pher Waterhouse. 

An extend­ed ver­sion of my remarks are now avail­able online at Sino-NK.